Today I was reminded of Augustine’s phrase: “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”

When I heard it, it was a word of grace to me.  It is easy to become preoccupied with the question of whether we’re where we need to be in the will of God.  For some, it can become a painful, exacting science and people can get themselves in a twist trying to figure out the will of God.  Sure, there are things God wants us to know and yes, he leads us.  But my honest reflection is that we don’t see more than the next step at a time.  We might have a bigger vision, an aim or hope in mind, but the road is often hidden.  Sometimes this is for our good.   When God planted a vision deep in my heart years ago little did I realise the path it would take me as I feel my way towards it.  Its not as far off now as it was, but there are still unknown questions and steps to take on the way.

A friend reminded me this week that its enough to be faithful where we are right now, in this moment.  I intrinsically knew he was right.  The step towards a future vision begins right now, you have to start from where you are.  Trusting in God to see your vision happen can be a funny game…it takes a long time.  God will lead the path so I’m gonna do my best to quit worrying about how its all going to pan out!  Still, at the very end of the day, our lives are but a tiny thread in the whole scheme of things.  Not a bad thing to remember!

So, don’t ask me where I want to be in a year’s time, five year’s time, 10 year’s time.  Where I want to be now is in the love of God…in a trusting place of his guidance and leadership, and in the assurance that in his good time he will bring to birth what he has planted.  I decided, though, that I’d like to share my vision, to put it out there.  My vision, after all, involves other people who are probably not known to me at this moment in time…so, if looking down the years of time you can see yourself in the picture God gave me, just you let me know!  You can find it HERE!! I wrote this about 2009 and it was 7 years in the writing at that point.